Rooty Hill Chess Club Championship 2004

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2004

Venue: Rooty Hill RSL Club - Sherbrooke Avenue, Rooty Hill
7 Rounds, Round Robin Tournament. Run in 5 divisions
Play date and time is every Monday night (7:30 PM) for seven weeks.
Rate of play is 90 minutes plus 10 secs a move from start.
DGT digital chess clock is used in all games.
Recording of moves ceases when a player has less than 5 minutes left on the clock

Click to view cross table (result and pairing) or submitted games

Edis Franca

Round 1 (11 Oct)
This is going to be a close competition. Thirty-eight entrants made up five round robins matching players of similar rating, and of the nineteen games played there were seven draws. My game with Mark Simpkin was a nail-biter (see it here). Mark did all the creative work while I just hung on for the draw. Joe Ymalay grabbed a pawn and the initiative on move 14 with black against Paul Laurance, but two moves later Paul found a surprise move and powered through the rest of the game. (Here it is.).
The longest game of the night developed into a time struggle between FM Brian Jones and Levi Descallar. Levi, with a minute left, had knight and two connected pawns against Brian's bare rook. Brian had the "luxury" of three minutes left on the clock. In the time scramble both players moved so quickly that the ten second bonus per move extended both their times. Levi lost a pawn before his valiant steed sacrificed itself to allow his last pawn to reach b7, forcing the draw.

Dragan (Doug) Djukovic

Round 2 (18 Oct)
Only five players have scored 2 points, one in each division. They are Paul Laurance, Luis de la Paz, Frank Kresinger, Billy Joel Bautista and Greg Davis. Enjoy it guys -- you only have to hang on to the lead for five more rounds! If you’re in the habit of going home as soon as your game is finished think about what you miss. Some of the most fascinating games are those that run late. Joe Ymalay’s win against Peter Cassettari was full of tactical possibilities (see it here); Norrie Tiqui had a great attack against Luis de la Paz but miscalculated a sacrifice in time trouble; and Allan Butler managed to queen a pawn with two minutes left on the clock. Leonardo Tenorio's queen looked safe on a5, but found herself without a square to call home when Paul Laurance tickled her with a bishop (games). The game of the night was Tony Bouchaaya’s "Anaconda Attack" against Levi Descallar. He wrapped his pawns around Levi’s position and then just squoze! Levi exchanged pawns, leaving Tony with a pawn on h6 and the wrong coloured bishop. Draw!

Ben Zalac

Round 3 (25 Oct)
With a few postponements creeping in it's hard to get a clear picture of the tournament. Paul Laurance has 2.5 in the top division as does Mark Simpkin in Division 2. Frank Kresinger and Billy Joel Bautista have 3 points respectively in Divisions 3 and 4, while Carrie Evans, Greg Davis and Peter Watts share the lead in Division 5 with 2 points each. There were a couple of wins against the run of play. Bill Herreros was in a strong position when Ben Harris vaporised his queen; and Billy Joel Bautista fought back for a win from what had looked like a lost position. I found out what friends are like when Henry Rara launched a Levitsky Attack. Never heard of it? Check it out here. Mark Simpkin's pair of bishops proved too strong for Edgar Facelo's pair of knights who were trying hard to defend until Mark's f-pawn got involved. See what happened. Peter Cassettari and Paul Laurance had some interesting moments before agreeing to draw (games). So did Tony Bouchaaya and David Harvey who drew on board 2 (games) . . . Robert Ambalong sends best wishes from the Land of the Maple Leaf. He said he's missing his chess and his friends. He will be back in December. If you want to see what he's really been up to, click here.

Shane Burgess

Round 4 (1 Nov)
Three games were forfeited tonight -- it was a bit rough on those people who turned up expecting to play. Tony Bouchaaya is leading Division 1 from Paul Laurance and Brian Jones who has a postponed game in hand. Brian and Paul played an interesting brevity. I'm not sure whether Brian feeds his queen on Mexican jumping beans or Viagara but she leapt about all over the place and was pretty hard to pin down. Here's the game . Mark Simpkin leads Division 2 from Dragan Djukovic and their clash next week may well decide the eventual outcome. In Division 3 Ben Harris on 3½ is a point clear of Allan Butler who used his "get out of jail free" card tonight in a good win against Frank Kresinger. Billy Joel Bautista is leading Division 4 with 3½ from Rolando Gonzales. And in Division 5 Carrie Evans looks comfortable; she leads by only half a point from Greg Davis but she too has a postponed game in hand. Adam Saiti with an early finish to his game, found time to play a postponed game from Round 2 against George Smit who had one of the forfeits. It turned into a real thriller. Adam must have been in a fighting mood after his earlier loss to Bill Herreros but you can see for yourself right here . The other game that came in this week was the draw between Greg Davis and Edis Franca. A piece down early, Edis fought back, found a pin to level the game, and hung in for a draw in a rook and pawn ending. Good game! See what you think..

Paul Laurance

Round 5 (8 Nov)
In a major upset tonight Paul Laurance defeated Tony Bouchaaya to seize a share of the lead. Tony's queen died miserably when the bishop attacking Paul's queen had to stay home to defend against 21. ...Ne3 mate. See for yourself.. Brian Jones who defeated Peter Cassettari is sitting in the box seat since he also has 3.5 with a postponed game still to play. In Division 2 Dragan Djukovic moved into the lead with a good win over Mark Simpkin who is only half a point behind, with another half point to Henry Rara. There were some exciting games in Division 3. Chris Rust and Bill Herreros each had a king and two knights but Chris's two pairs of pawns, one on each side, proved to have the advantage over Bill's three queenside pawns and Bill found himself in zugzwang on move 46. In another tight game, Allan Butler's rook had a nervous breakdown trying to stop Adam Saiti's zillions of pawns. Rolando Gonzales defeated Billy Joel Bautista to take the lead by half a point in Division 4. All the games except one have finished in Division 5 and Carrie Evans, with a game in hand, leads with four points from Greg Davis on 3.5 and Peter Watts on 3. For Carrie's game with Edis Franca click here . The funniest game of the night must have been Henry Rara's win against Luis de la Paz. It ended in laughter when Henry pushed a pawn at Luis's knight and Luis left it there. Of course, they may have been laughing at Luis's T-shirt which read Tawa ka ng tawa, May nakakatawa ba which translates as, "You keep on laughing ... what's funny?"

Ben Harris

Round 6 (15 Nov)
It's tight at the top. Brian Jones (with a game in hand) still shares the lead with Paul Laurance by half a point from Tony Bouchaaya. Paul helped Levi Descallar avoid time trouble tonight by winning early (here's how). In Division 2 Mark Simpson on 4½ just shades Henry Rara and Dragan Djukovic in a very tight contest. Ben Harris (also with a game in hand) leads Division 3 clearly from Chris Rust and Frank Kresinger. Watch Ben -- he's going places. Vilko Salecic defeated in-form Billy Joel Bautista in Division 4 and threw the competition wide open. Rolando Gonzales is a clear point in front but he needs at least a draw against second-seeded Shane Burgess to be sure of winning. Carrie Evans beat Nick Vlaar tonight in their postponed game for a clean sweep of Division 5.

[About an hour after the above went on line I received an email from Paul Laurance. He wrote, "I thought I'd point out that at the end of the game, the clocks were Paul 0:58:00 vs Levi 0:00:46." He was still in time trouble! Levi, I'm going to start a collection to buy you a pair of running shoes to wear while you're playing, mate!"]

Greg Davis

Round 7 (22 Nov)
What a night! At the head of Division 1 Brian Jones and Tony Bouchaaya drew their final game giving Brian 6 points and the club championship. Paul Laurance (5 points) was second.
In Germany it's called Der Springer, in Hungary it's the Hussar but to us it's just a knight. Check out the possibilities for David Harvey's knight (right here) when he was a pawn down against Paul Laurance. Also in Division 1 Peter Cassettari's win against Levi Descallar was a tactical smorgasbord enjoyed by players and spectators alike. (Feast on this.)
Division 2 was a three-way dead heat for first between Mark Simpkin, Henry Rara and Dragan Djukovic. Mark was a pawn up against Rick Carballo but the opposite coloured bishops ensured a draw. I had a shocker against Luis de la Paz after an early mistake. He played a multiple-choice ending: I got to choose a square for my king to die. (Here it is.)
Division 3: During the week Ben Harris dropped his postponed game to George Smit but a convincing win tonight against Adam Saiti was enough to win him the competition. (See it here.) Chris Rust finished second with 4½.
Division 4 was another three-way tie between Vilko Salecic, Rolando Gonzales and Munir Anjum, all on five points. With 3½ from the first four rounds Billy Joel Bautista looked to have it won but lost momentum in the second half and finished half a point behind.
Division 5 was won comfortably by Carrie Evans on 5 points from Greg Davis who placed second with 3½.
Congratulations to FM Brian Jones our 2004 Club Champion, and to all winners and place-getters. Many thanks to Peter Cassettari for organising such a smoothly run event.

-- Report by David Evans

Players

Rnd 1
Oct 11

Rnd 2
Oct 18

Rnd 3
Oct 25

Rnd 4
Nov 1

Rnd 5
Nov 8

Rnd 6
Nov 15

Rnd 7
Nov 27

Score

Division 1

1 Tony Bouchaaya

2203

4½

2 Brian A. Jones [FM]

2011

3 Peter Cassettari

1878

4 Paul Laurance

1794

5 Joe Ymalay

1780

2½

6 David Harvey

1775

7 Levi Descallar

1774

8 Leonardo Tenorio

1770

Division 2

1 Mark Simpkin

1756

2 Henry Rara

1697

3 Edgar Facelo

1690 (p)

4 Luis de la Paz

1656

5 Dragan (Doug) Djukovic

1652

6 Norrie Tiqui

1656

7 Rick Carballo

1639

3½

8 David Evans

1623

2½

Division 3

1 Iliya Dzukic

1576

1½

2 Benjamin Harris

1576

5½

3 Chris Rust

1576

4½

4 George Smit

1532

5 Frank Kresinger

1528

3½

6 Adam Saiti

1517

7 Allan Butler

1477

8 Bill Herreros

1461

Division 4

1 Billy Joel Bautista

1450 (p)

4½

2 Shane Burgess

1450 (p)

3 Rick Warner

1450 (p)

1½

4 Ken MacGillivray

1447

5 Vilko Salecic

1409

6 Rolando Gonzales

1407

7 M. Munir Anjum

1400 (p)

BYE

8 Ben Zalac

unr.

Division 5

1 Eddie Quesada

1395

2 Carrie Evans

1381

3 John Baba

1319

BYE

4 Greg Davis

1200 (p)

3½

5 Peter Watts

1155

6 Edis Franca

unr.

7 Nick Vlaar

unr.

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Submitted games:

To view games with movetext, click on Chessgenie icon and select the game under Club Championship 04

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